Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, January 11. Also check out President Obama’s Farewell Address. I certainly don’t share his optimism at this point, given what we’ve been through the past few months, but I will miss him greatly and thank him (and Michelle of course) for his tremendous service to our country!

Obama in farewell: ‘Yes, we can. Yes, we did.’ (“The president used his farewell speech in his home town of Chicago to defend his imperiled legacy and press a broad, optimistic vision for the country that seems more divided than ever.”)

Trump confronts firestorm over Russia allegations (“The president-elect lashes out at allegations that Russia could have compromising information about him as ‘fake news.'” Trump would certainly know about “fake news,” as he’s the master of creating it.)

Barack Obama’s Farewell Address Was Hopeful, Unconvincing (“This optimism was offered despite the election of Donald Trump, a successor with no government experience who made his political bones questioning Obama’s very legitimacy as an American citizen and legal president in appeals to the basest racist instincts in American society.”)

Trump to square off with press after Russia bombshell (“The president-elect has not held a news conference in 168 days, breaking from 40 years of precedent.” Yeah, remember when Village Idiot Chris Cillizza was ranting and raving about HILLARY not holding news conferences – and about her other non-“scandals”?!? Those were the days…)

I was listening to Obama’s farewell speech while simultaneously reading the 35 page memorandum from the British intelligence agent about Trump’s relationship with the Russians. I finally could not take the dissonance any longer so I turned off Obama’ cheerleading speech.

None of this is a surprise, it could even be expected. In fact I predicted it myself and I have no special powers to see the future. Trumps campaign has opened Pandora’s box in terms of foreign intelligence services who now feel compelled to meddle in U S domestic politics, even if only to counter Russia. How can you close the lid of the box now?

Meanwhile, the Brits and the US intelligence community have done Trump a favor by inoculating him against blackmail from the allegations in the memo about a certain escapade, and other things in the memo. I know that Trump apparently does not believe in vaccinations, but let us not forget that the recent Ebola epidemic in Liberia was snuffed out by inoculations, which is pretty good proof of concept.

The allegations in the memo about bribery in China, however, may give rise to more investigation.

Yeah, I definitely do NOT share Obama’s optimism about America or the world at this point….

Quizzical

As kind of a footnote, who is responsible for creating this tension with Russia anyway? It was Republican Presidents who expanded NATO to include so many former Soviet block countries, in 1999 and 2004.

Why did we do that? What was the strategy? I have no memory of why this was done. Let me guess though: “containment.”

My mistake, that’s right. It was a bipartisan effort which however was controversial at the time. NATO was expanded in 1999 during the Clinton Aministration, and in 2004 under the George W. Bush Administration.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_NATO#

Gorbachev apparently has said that at the time of Germany’s reunification, he was promised that NATO wouldn’t expand to the east. Whether that’s true or not, the Russians probably believe it was said.

Quizzical

Here’s an article from the Guardian today, saying that Russia regards NATA troops in Poland as a threat to Russia’s security.

“President-elect Trump’s announced plan to avoid any potential conflicts of interests falls far short of what the American public demands. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee heard expert testimony that made clear the only way to adequately and appropriately protect the integrity of the Office of the President is to immediately divest all interests in the Trump Organization and put those holdings into a blind trust. This plan, devised by Trump’s advisors and not independent groups, doesn’t meet that basic standard, tainting virtually every decision he makes as conflicted.

“Even more troublesome, his attempt to tap dance around the Emoluments Clause is an affront to the American public. Given his proven failed record of past promises to many charitable organizations, and his refusal to release his tax filings to back up those claims, there is little confidence he would live up to this promise.”